When the Devil Whispers
by stress
Summary: From the instant you enter the room to find him standing there alone to the moment you see the radio sitting on the table, playing your conversation for the devil to hear, time seems to stand still. Spoilers for Episode 10, "Snap".


Disclaimer: _The characters in this story are the property of CBS and are only used for fan related purposes. Any dialogue from the tenth episode, "Snap", included is used only to further the story._

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**When the Devil Whispers**

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From the instant you enter the room to find him standing there alone to the moment you see the radio sitting on the table, playing your conversation for the devil to hear, time seems to stand still. You struggle to understand, you struggle to make some sense of what you see, what you hear.

And then,

_**snap**__._

The glass shatters outward, the remains of the window twisting and breaking and covering the damp grass like some morbid display of a light snow flurrying down. Under the dim moonlight it glistens but, as careless fingers scrabble for a hold on the sill and you lean over the edge, you don't see the shine. You have eyes alone for him.

Your father.

The sickening snap, the horrifying crash, it echoes in your ears, so resounded and amplified in your terror that you can't even hear the sound of your heart breaking.

It's too familiar, just too damn much the same. Numbly, shakily, you realize that he was right. It was Wakefield's game all along—it was his plan. It's a trap, with your dad as bait and you too… too _stubborn,_ blinded by the way memories and the pain and the fear, to see what was really happening.

You're desperate to heave, nearly willing in those first few seconds to follow your father's body out the window. The shock sets in, and then the numbness you know all too well. His last words, bidden yet unwelcome in the sudden aftermath, they rush into your mind… but just what do they mean now?

_I shot him, but I never found his body..._

_This is a trap. _I'm _a trap. You have to leave..._

_Wakefield is alive. I swear it!_

There's no doubt now, no denial or a refusal to believe that the shadows that chased you these last seven years have risen up from the grave. He's back and in sparing the man you've always loved, he's taken from you a man who's loved you all along.

_No! You're my daughter. Mine! Don't you ever forget that…_

A sob catches in your throat, the dark halls of the abandoned Candlewick passing you by in a blur. There's no conscious decision to move, with the flashlight hanging limply out of your trembling hand and the shotgun Shane handed you angrily slapping at your side, but you're running. Just like the way you followed your mother's last screams and stared in shock and disbelief at what John Wakefield had done to her, you have to go to your father. You have to just… just see him with your own eyes.

What if…

Banishing the hope—there's no hope where Wakefield is concerned—you race out freely into the night. You have no fear, your mind focused and your heart frantically pumping you on. It's dented, damaged and mangled underneath the horrific abuse endlessly heaped upon it that evening.

Cast aside as an outsider, treated like a leper by most of them all but for Henry and Jimmy, you feel their accusing eyes on you ever since you read those damning words of the devil: _Sarah had my child_.

And it seems your worst fears are founded and your father—_Dad!_—is the vicious killer, the monster who had done nothing but take life after life since your return to this cursed island. An obsession with a long ago serial killer has turned him deranged and you have no choice but begrudgingly believe their accusations. From the story little Madison told to the maps you found with Henry and Trish to the clue of the oxygen down at the docks… was there any other way to look at it?

Then, as if that wasn't enough, you had to watch the docks blow up, unable to do anything as Jimmy—the love of your life who didn't know—died, the boat on which he stood exploding in a fiery blast of angry oranges and reds and hot, murderous heat. You thought him gone, your very soul ripped to shreds to see someone else you loved killed so viciously… and then, just like that, he was returned to you. Unconscious but alive, Jimmy was left on the doorstop to the Cannery, a sadistic present gift-wrapped just for you—complete with the key to your hotel room in his grasp.

_Jimmy loves you…_

But it _was_ a trap, a lure to find your father seconds away from his own death. Despite his pleas, you watched and it breaks you inside to look at him now.

He's dead. The man who loved you, the man who raised you, the man who did everything he could to keep you safe and had sacrificed all he had for you… Charlie Mills is dead.

The numbness isn't lifting, the only response you have to this horrific sense of déjà vu. Seven years ago it was Mom… now Dad was caught in John Wakefield's noose.

You're frozen on the ground, unable to move, unable to do more than hiccup away your uncontrollable sobs at his feet. The snap echoes in your head, so loud and so terrible that you don't hear the heavy, purposeful footsteps that manage to sneak up behind you.

You jump at the unexpected touch, but he's quick. Much quicker than you are as he slaps the silly gun away and daringly meets your gaze.

There's no mistaking his leering smirk or the perverse pleasure inherent to his voice when the devil whispers, "You look just like your mother."

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Author's Note: _I loved the entire ending to this episode, from Charlie's death to the reveal of John Wakefield. I just had to write something about it ;) Hope you liked it!_


End file.
